Display devices, such as television sets (TVs), may be utilized to output or playback audiovisual or multimedia streams, which may comprise TV broadcasts, telecasts and/or localized Audio/Video (A/V) feeds from one or more available consumer devices, such as videocassette recorders (VCRs) and/or Digital Video Disc (DVD) players. TV broadcasts and/or audiovisual or multimedia feeds may be inputted directly into the TVs, or it may be passed intermediately via one or more specialized set-top boxes that may enable providing any necessary processing operations. Exemplary types of connectors that may be used to input data into TVs include, but not limited to, F-connectors, S-video, composite and/or video component connectors, and/or, more recently, High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) connectors.
Television broadcasts are generally transmitted by television head-ends over broadcast channels, via RF carriers or wired connections. TV head-ends may comprise terrestrial TV head-ends, Cable-Television (CATV), satellite TV head-ends and/or broadband television head-ends. Terrestrial TV head-ends may utilize, for example, a set of terrestrial broadcast channels, which in the U.S. may comprise, for example, channels 2 through 69. Cable-Television (CATV) broadcasts may utilize even greater number of broadcast channels. TV broadcasts comprise transmission of video and/or audio information, wherein the video and/or audio information may be encoded into the broadcast channels via one of plurality of available modulation schemes. TV Broadcasts may utilize analog and/or digital modulation format. In analog television systems, picture and sound information are encoded into, and transmitted via analog signals, wherein the video/audio information may be conveyed via broadcast signals, via amplitude and/or frequency modulation on the television signal, based on analog television encoding standard. Analog television broadcasters may, for example, encode their signals using NTSC, PAL and/or SECAM analog encoding and then modulate these signals onto a VHF or UHF RF carriers, for example.
In digital television (DTV) systems, television broadcasts may be communicated by terrestrial, cable and/or satellite head-ends via discrete (digital) signals, utilizing one of available digital modulation schemes, which may comprise, for example, QAM, VSB, QPSK and/or OFDM. Because the use of digital signals generally requires less bandwidth than analog signals to convey the same information, DTV systems may enable broadcasters to provide more digital channels within the same space otherwise available to analog television systems. In addition, use of digital television signals may enable broadcasters to provide high-definition television (HDTV) broadcasting and/or to provide other non-television related service via the digital system. Available digital television systems comprise, for example, ATSC, DVB, DMB-T/H and/or ISDN based systems. Video and/or audio information may be encoded into digital television signals utilizing various video and/or audio encoding and/or compression algorithms, which may comprise, for example, MPEG-1/2, MPEG-4 AVC, MP3, AC-3, AAC and/or HE-AAC.
Nowadays most TV broadcasts (and similar multimedia feeds), utilize video formatting standard that enable communication of video images in the form of bit streams. These video standards may utilize various interpolation and/or rate conversion functions to present content comprising still and/or moving images on display devices. For example, de-interlacing functions may be utilized to convert moving and/or still images to a format that is suitable for certain types of display devices that are unable to handle interlaced content. TV broadcasts, and similar video feeds, may be interlaced or progressive. Interlaced video comprises fields, each of which may be captured at a distinct time interval. A frame may comprise a pair of fields, for example, a top field and a bottom field. The pictures forming the video may comprise a plurality of ordered lines. During one of the time intervals, video content for the even-numbered lines may be captured. During a subsequent time interval, video content for the odd-numbered lines may be captured. The even-numbered lines may be collectively referred to as the top field, while the odd-numbered lines may be collectively referred to as the bottom field. Alternatively, the odd-numbered lines may be collectively referred to as the top field, while the even-numbered lines may be collectively referred to as the bottom field. In the case of progressive video frames, all the lines of the frame may be captured or played in sequence during one time interval. Interlaced video may comprise fields that were converted from progressive frames. For example, a progressive frame may be converted into two interlaced fields by organizing the even numbered lines into one field and the odd numbered lines into another field.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.